Vineco Tweaking cheap kits

[Codfish]

Hello all,
I just received an inexpensive kit, the Vineco California Trilogy.
I was thinking of using white grape juice in place of some of the water and was wondering if any of you have tried it

 

[Gilmango]

Hello all,
I just received an inexpensive kit, the Vineco California Trilogy.
I was thinking of using white grape juice in place of some of the water and was wondering if any of you have tried it

I think that using some white grape juice would mostly increase the original gravity and thus the alcohol in the finished wine, not a terrible goal but it sort of depends on what the starting gravity would be without the substitution.

If you haven't already read it, I'd suggest reading the generic "tweaking cheap kits" thread here for other ideas. It is full of pages and pages of thoughts. I haven't read it in awhile, but off the top of my head many of those tweaks would include trying to add more character, flavor, mouthfeel, etc. rather than just boosting the alcohol. For instance adding some wine grape skins, grapes (even table grapes, possibly with the stems still in place), or raisins/currants; possibly adding a fruit pack, possibly adding more oak or tannins.

 

[winemaker81]

I was thinking of using white grape juice in place of some of the water and was wondering if any of you have tried it

Which white grape juice? Drinking juice is lower quality, in the winemaking context. It's also a completely different flavor. As @Gilmango said, you're increase sugar, but IMO you're better off adding plain 'ole table sugar if you want to bump the ABV.

 

[Codfish]

Which white grape juice? Drinking juice is lower quality, in the winemaking context. It's also a completely different flavor. As @Gilmango said, you're increase sugar, but IMO you're better off adding plain 'ole table sugar if you want to bump the ABV.

Which white grape juice? Drinking juice is lower quality, in the winemaking context. It's also a completely different flavor. As @Gilmango said, you're increase sugar, but IMO you're better off adding plain 'ole table sugar if you want to bump the ABV.

I was thinking of building body not ABV

 

[Khristyjeff]

You might look at which wines make up the "trilogy" and read the flavor profile description. To add body, I've added a home-made white table grape f-pac or an f-pac made with slices of Granny Smith apples. You could also consider tossing in golden raisins. But generally, I believe you would pick only one and not try to mix the flavors from what I've read.

 

[winemaker81]

I was thinking of building body not ABV

Add raisins and/or Zante currants.

Another option is to add glycerin at bottling time. This is in addition to other choices.

 

[BPL]

I was thinking of building body not ABV

I suggest start building the body of the wine by looking at the yeast and nutrients used. This article presents a good start on how to do that. Specifically, take a hard look at the second paragraph to the right of "How to influence glycerol production:" https://admin.lallemandwine.com/wp-...-Expert-120321-WE-Glycerol-and-WInemaking.pdf

The second portion of the success story is using the YAN calculator found in the FermCalc app.

I've been practicing this method for several years and it works quite well. Not only has glycerol/body have increased, but the overall taste of the final products have improved.

 

[Codfish]

Thank you all for the replies, I think for this batch I am going to add raisins. I also do add glycerin at bottling time with my red wines.
Also thanks BPL for the link to the article about glycerol, very interesting.